We’re hearing reports that Ubisoft’s reps are encouraging PC gamers to sign a petition, this one, if they want to see Ubi’s spectacular looking post-apocalyptic shooter, Tom Clancy’s The Division, on PC. Frankly, we’d quite like to see the game on PC, because the E3 reveal (see that below) was so strong. This seems a bit of a weird way to go about asking for it, though.

Exactly. If they are encouraging people to sign, they clearly want to make it on PC (it could be that Massive want to – they made the PC only WiC remember – but Ubi aren’t 100% sure) so just sign the petition and stop being such a bunch of self entitled PC Elitists.

I’d bet if they don’t, it’ll be the same bunch of you whining about the fact that Ubi haven’t bought the game to PC in a year or so’s time.

Luckily it looks like there are 47,000 PC gamers who are prepared to put their ‘pride’ aside to enjoy a great game.

Nope, won´t sign. Ubisoft has done so much on the PC recently that already have a pretty good idea what the potential PC audience for this title is. Petitions are a good thing when you want to show the developer/publisher something they doubt, but that isn’t the case here.

oh but the website sucks you in. did you know there’s a senator out there making inflamatory statements that need to be denounced? and there’s this grassroots thing, and exxon is apparently anti-equality.

Until Demon’s Souls, From was a niche developer, so that probably plays some role in it.

Ubi knows it will make money from PC, Ubi knows a PC port is easy since the next gen architecture is so close to a PC, yet they are saying they need signatures for something which should be obvious (especially with the reaction to the XbOne and the probably small market, if anything they should cancel that version).

(Not that I’m against the petition, I really don’t care. It will have DRM on PC, Ubisoft DRM, so I probably won’t be buying it.)

condescending and manipulative? they haven’t said they’re officially releasing it for PC, but that they would like to and that fans should be vocal about it if they want it to happen. they’re saying that they’re listening, and if they are, that’s a good thing.

that they’re not doing PC to start with is a different story entirely.

I’m not sure if you mean an MMO doesn’t need DRM, or if an MMO is DRM, but you know Ubi is going to add DRM, and an MMO is not DRM. Simply having an account is not DRM, it’s a way to tie your character to you.

I would prefer to have to download as few publisher trojans as possible.

They’re obviously already planning a port. They’re likely already working on it. They wouldn’t be coyly suggesting people sign a petition to do something they weren’t already planning to do. Businesses just don’t work that way. And honestly I’m sure their marketing/analytics department already has a perfectly good idea of how the title will perform on the PC – they don’t need a petition to tell them that. They’ve gotten by making successful games for markets without petitions for all these years, they haven’t suddenly hit a blind spot.

They’re just spinning up hype. Which is fine. I am acclimated to the hype machine and if this is how they want to do it, I am only slightly insulted and here is my signature representing the fact that your game looks good enough for me to overlook the hype machine.

Ubisoft had a few years of very poor public relations. This is an opportunity for them to generate hype and show their customers that they are listening to them. It lets their customers feel like they can make a difference in how Ubisoft runs its business. They are cheating back a little goodwill by making their customers believe that it was their idea in the first place;l It so, sooo totally wasn’t. But that’s okay. I’m willing to let them. They’re making incredible games lately and they’ve backed up on their DRM. The DRM thing was my only problem with them, so good enough.

I have a hard time believing that this game will work on platform. This is basically Guild Wars 2 the third person shooter. This game will have the problems of all other online games. No Chinese servers, no Asia servers, no Sea Southeast Asia servers, and no Australia \ New Zealand servers. This will not stop anyone in any of these regions from playing the game, oh no, they’ll just play on US West servers and introduce a ton of latency issues in the process.

You do realize how sprawling and disconnected some of these companies are right? There is probably a large majority of people in Ubisoft that would love to develop a PC version, but find themselves at loggerheads with the moneymen.

Yeah, this crossed my mind. The game looks great, but I’m not going to beg. I know it’s innoculous in spirit.
But I can’t help but feel that this trumped up petition is just an advertising ploy. “Oh, I gotta get people to sign! The game looks great! Hey guys, have you heard about this game?!”

I don’t think any of them have been ‘exclusive’ in the sense that it is the only place on PC to buy them, however it’s the client which must be used to execute the game which drives most of us insane.

UPlay doesn’t have controller support, so if you’re running one of their games on a HTPC/console-likePC then you have to switch over to a mouse to get the game going – it’s a massive hassle for people who boot directly into Steam’s BPM.

is that really such an issue though? how many times are you going to open the game in any one playing? besides, hasn’t BPM barely been around for a year now? seems a bit silly to complain about: inconvenient, sure, but silly to get worked up over

Nothing, really. Ubi currently uses it as a one-time online DRM check at installation; it’s got a perfectly serviceable offline mode after that. Ultimately, it’s a rather pointless piece of software, but also mostly harmless.

Now dance. Dance like monkeys. Come on, PC gamers! Dance! You call that dancing? Your pitiful dance disgusts me. Memo to Corporate: Double the DRM and release a statement saying that PC gamers are all pirates who smell of poo.

Took the post right out of my mouth. Jig, you filthy pirates, jig for our amusement so we’re encouraged to ‘allow’ you to buy something from us, which will then be late anyway and implemented by a third party pack of interns we found previously making flash games for Newgrounds. Then, when it fails, we shall blame you for it, and proclaim your format is ‘dead’.

Alternatively, some people within Ubisoft want to bring The Division out on PC, and could do with some evidence to convince others in the company who aren’t sure.

I don’t like Ubisoft, I don’t intend to install UPlay and I probably won’t play this game, but the above scenario seems more likely to me than “Evil MegaCorp actually makes potential customers dance for no reason other than their own amusement.” I don’t like Ubisoft’s business practices but I’ll stop short of believing that they are actually out of a children’s film where they’re planning to close the orphanage and bulldoze the donkey sanctuary.

I’m more inclined to ascribe actions that seem to fly in the face of common sense to power struggles within an organisation. I’ve seen department heads that would happily douse the entire university in petrol and cackle while they watch the whole place burn rather than see a perceived rival get funding.

Look! A Game Feature! Let us all turn and stare at it! Then let us comment loudly to one another “oh boy, look at that Game Feature. It sure was featurey! High five!” – Ubisoft, respecting the critical intelligence of its market since… well, coming soon. If you sign this respect petition.

Sounds like how I chat in a team game. Brief chunks of accurate info, delivered frequently. Talk too little, you deprive your team-mates of awareness; talk too much so they can’t get a word in, your awareness suffers.

And yes, you can be that calm. You *should* be that calm. Getting too excited is counter-productive, it can get you focused on one thing, awareness suffers once more. It suffers doubly so when you start yelling on the chat.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t get excited at all, because when you say something in a tone that evokes a sense of urgency, people act quicker.

My only issue with the chat in the above walkthrough is that it is scripted and some of the lines don’t match up with the action believably. Case in point: The woman’s call for the molotov comes too late to act upon, but the dude reacts with just enough time and then thanks her for the warning. maybe he has spider-sense.

As a person who’s played online RPGs using voice chat before: I found it more than reasonably realistic; if anything, they were acting a bit too much in-character, especially after the fighting had ended.

I find it amusing that the petition organizer posted a link to a different petition asking Naughty Dog to port Last of Us to PC, cause ND isn’t a Sony developer and the Uncharted series has such great PC ports…

edited for this morning’s reading comprehension fail. I think I got away with it.
Really though, I haven’t been following E3 much so I know nothing about this game. Yeah there’s a trailer / gameplay promo thinger up there that would love to tell me more, but.

I wasn’t even that impressed by the trailer for The Division at E3. It was an overly long snorefest of badly written exposition. Perhaps the game itself will be fun enough. Also, I guess Massive are making third person shooters now?

I just found it funny that the apt response to any world problem appears to be shooting it.

“In 2033, you forget your wedding anniversary. in response, the world’s governments unleash secret Project Zulu Foxtrot. A highly armed team of elite special forces is inserted into your house to deal with the crisis.” (Except longer and clunkier, of course)

Clearly the word “spectacular” has undergone massive depreciation recently. That was shockingly generic. Like someone just dipped a hand into a bag of focus group approved words.
“Third person shooter” “co-op ” “set in a post apocalyptic world” “where you shoot terrorists/Russians”

I’m not sure what is self entitled about not wanting to have to beg for publishers to release games on pc.
Ubi are not doing you a favor. The whole thing lies on the implication that they will make no money with a big franchise on a machine that’s in hundreds of thousands of homes. The whole thing is very pompous.

i never said there was a nefarious plan. There is no harm in signing but i think there is defiantly a lack of respect for consumers. I don’t know about you but i don’t like being treated like a third third wheel or an after thought.

From what I’ve read, they didn’t actually start this petition, they’re just encouraging people to sign it. I guess someone in their PR dept thought it would be a good thing to get behind. Would it make more sense to ignore the petition and set up an online poll? Maybe. But there’s already 50k signatures on this so why make everyone do it all over?

Personally i feel it’s publishers making it the consumers responsibility to speak out before a game is even released to consider a pc version. I’m of the opinion that you either release the product or you don’t. This is not kick-starter ubisoft have the means and it’s fully in there power to do so. if they don’t think it’s economically viable that’s their choice.
If the petition was started by fans that’s fine but as soon as ubi endorse it i feel they are shifting responsibility to consumers and i find that frustrating.

I think that that’s the problem. I remember Ubisoft saying that their PC sales of console releases were disappointing (they were talking a 95% decrease at one point), so I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some important people there currently in doubt as to whether PC ports are still worth it (don’t forget that most of Ubi’s PC ports have been pretty sloppy, either).

So I’m going to back Ubisoft here and say that it’s perfectly alright for them to gauge interest in this way. Though I won’t sign the petition myself, I have no interest in another shooter which is probably going to get such a bad port to PC that it’ll be borderline unplayable.

Someone (not Ubisfot itself) claimed that their DRM scheme caused a 90% loss on PC sales without a corresponding increase in console sales. That was two years ago.

In more recent news, FC3 on PC sold over half a million copies through retail. Digital distribution easily triples that number, which fits with the news that the game sold over 6 million copies to date across all platforms.

The Division looks great, and it seems astounding to think it wouldn’t come to PC when it was very likely developed on a PC-based devkit and that the footage is likely running on PC of equivalent spec to the PS4. Why do we have to beg for this again? Come on Ubisoft, don’t insult us.

Yeah it seems a little odd. MMOs on PC? That’s bread and butter for PC gaming these days. It’s much less common to find these sort of games on consoles, although that’ll get more popular with the next generation.

I appreciate the angle that, given the x64-based architecture of the Xbone and PS4, it’s never been easier or cheaper to make a PC version of a AAA.

But I signed anyway, because taking the moral high ground and not signing in this instance just means you won’t get The Division on PC. Ubisoft will not take a lack of signatures as a statement, just as a lack of interest. Frankly, a lot of the attitudes on show here are just irritatingly snobby.

I’m afraid this is a typical response from the PC crowd these days, the sane few are being drowned out by the cretinous masses. I’d love to see this come out on PC, if only to see an interesting game rewarded with more sales. I’m personally going to get it on PS4 but the more the merrier.

lol what moral high ground ,you guys are ridiculous. All this boils down to is a question. “Are you interested in a PC version of this game? If yes please sign here.” What exactly is immoral about this? nothing at all of course.
this reaction is nothing more than a bunch of silly posturing by a few loud mouthed idiots who want to read more into this than is actually there and naturally being on the internet there’s no shortage of fools who will parrot this asinine crap.You know the internet just doing its thing….

PC Gamers: Why won’t developers port their games to our platform? Why must we watch from the sidelines as the consolekids get all the fun toys? Why oh why won’t they LISTEN to us? :(
Dev: Hey guys we’re considering making a PC version of this thing. Interested?
PC Gamers: WHATS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!? WHY DONT YOU GO FUCK YOURSELF >:U

I don’t understand what makes the Division different from Assassin’s Creed 4, Watch Dogs, The Crew, Splinter Cell Black List or any other upcoming Ubi title… Why was Division singled out as Console only? its weird and obviously with the petition having over 50k sigs Ubi will port it over.

This basically translates to “Yes the game is already in development for the PC and in fact we even showed you the PC version, but we also signed a contract to push console sales by leaving doubt as to whether there will be a PC version. We would also quite like all the free publicity, thanks.”

Every other Ubi multi plat game is coming to PC and every other major Tom Clancy game has come to PC. What a massive coincidence they leave the one game they know PC gamers will want, out.

It’s a ploy to try and get PC gamers to buy a console, same goes for Destiny(Bungie are already stating they want to bring it to PC, and the version that was demo’d was likely the PC version) MGSV (Konami have confirmed all footage so far is the PC version yet wont announce the PC version) and the king of this trick GTA (If GTA V wasn’t coming to PC they would do what they did with RDR and out right deny that it will ever come to PC, instead of t his “If there is enough interest” crap that leaves hope)

Given that I’d imagine it’s a hell of a lot more expensive to both port and support an MMO on PC than a single player game, I can understand them needing some sort of show of interest. Also their support of Anno 2070 has been really good, with a nice number of updates and a kickass expansion pack, which gives me hope that if it does get ported, it won’t end up a buggy crappy mess.

Tom Clancy’s The Division should be released for PC for many reasons but the most important one is that the release of this amazing game will only be for consoles.
If the petition was actually intelligently written and had some well constructed arguments I might sign it, but as it is it’s quite terrible.

Cynical me is finding it really hard to maintain the initial excitement I had when I first saw this. E3 “gameplay” demos are always scripted to hell and gone, the mmo aspect concerns me with regards to story and the reactivity of the world to my player/my team, as well as the longevity of the game (ie. “10 hours of actual game, but 50 hours of pvp!”).

Why, oh why Massive can’t you do another WiC. I would do horrible things to have that.

A bit odd they had to do this when considering to put this on the PC. They’ve put out every single AAA game they’ve made recently on the PC (and seemed to do okay when they got rid of always-on DRM). And furthermore, games of this form have piracy figures of virtually zero (okay, there may be some who will use a hacked server ie Hamachi, but that is such a minuscule population that they’re not nearly worth the effort of going after).

I was going to sign the change.org petition, but it was asking for a huge amount of detail — address, etc.

While I realise they want to act like a real-world petition and also prevent duplicate signatures and all that, I still wanted to read their privacy policy and look up their “internet cred” as it were. Because “free site asking for tons of personal details” = automatic phishy alarm bells going off.

I’m not a fan of making people beg for it. Clearly they want people to squirm. Otherwise they would have acknowledged the overwhelming numbers of people wanting it (the petition when I signed it had something like 36,000 signatures).

When was the last time a Tom Clancy game not been on PC. I can’t remember and when has Ubisoft on the regular made a game exclusive to just console. To my knowledge it’s been some time. There is really no excuse to not put this game on PC, they no long have that excuse that there is to much difference in hardware or that it was specifically made for that console. I’m not against doing the Poll, but I call BS on this one. It’s a f’n MMO, when has an MMo not been on a PC too. yeah… BS Ubisoft.. “Oh we might make this on PC if there is an interest” – BS I say.

A company as powerful and financially successful as Ubi is not bringing this to PC without doing tons of market research first, regardless of any petition. And 50000 people doesn’t seem like very much for them likely intending to sell in the millions.

Seems like a marketing ploy. Instead of just one post about the game release, now there’s drama. Will they or won’t they? OMG pc gamers think it’s going to be brilliant because a whole 50,000 signed an e-petition in the first week! The game is going to be a blockbuster! The fans have spoken and Ubi loves their fans! Don’t miss out! Pre-order now!